24% high efficency solar panels developed

[ecomodded]

24.4% efficient PV panels

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from link:

The Australian National University has cemented its and Australia’s role as a key player in global solar energy innovation with the unveiling of a new high-efficiency solar cell, developed through a joint venture with Chinese solar PV giant Trina Solar.

The product of two years’ research at the ANU Centre for Sustainable Energy Systems – a world-class R&D facility known for its development of Sliver solar cells, nano PV technology and hybrid PV/thermal parabolic trough concentrator systems – the laboratory-scale Interdigitated Back Contact (“IBC”) solar cell has been independently tested to deliver an efficiency of 24.4%, putting it in the league of the most efficient solar cells to date.

In an announcement on Tuesday, Trina described the collaborative achievement – the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS) was also involved, via contract with Trina – as a “milestone in solar cell research.”

Attention will now turn to developing a commercial version of the solar cell, as well as an IBC PV module. Trina says a 125mm by 125mm commercial cell has already reached an efficiency greater than 22 per cent, and 238W for an IBC PV module (based on 72 cells) – both of which have been independently tested.

Trina also said it expected the IBC solar cell to be ready for industrialised mass production soon.

Professor Andrew Blakers, Director of the Centre for Sustainable Energy Systems at the ANU Research School of Engineering, said the ANU has been working towards developing highly efficient back contact silicon solar cells with both positive and negative metallic contacts on the rear surface.

The technology, says Blakers, allows the surface facing the sun to be uniformly black, without the metal electrodes present on most solar cells – an attribute which makes modules look better, while more importantly increasing electricity uptake per unit area.

“The results mean the laboratory cell technology can now be further developed for commercial solar cells,” Blakers said. “The work is expected to lead to commercial solar cells with improved efficiency, allowing more power to be generated from a given area of rooftop solar module.”

ANU and Trina Solar develop 24.4% efficient solar cell : Renew Economy

We are getting there ! Glad to hear of some Progress in the PV field, I expect China to bring this technology to us shortly.. as China is moving fast in fabricating the cutting edge technologies.